(One of the New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2011 and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award) This perceptive and impressionistic history of Harlem seeks to capture its essential spirit at a time when it is changing fast. A walker, a reader, and a gazer, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is also a skilled talker. Her impromptu curbside exchanges with Harlem's residents are transformed into a lyrical set of observations on what change and opportunity have wrought in this small corner of a big city, with its outsize reputation and even larger influence, as it teeters on the brink of seeing its poorer residents and their rich history crowded out by commercial developers. In her blend of oral history, conversations with scholars and hobos, musings on notable antecedents and illustrious Harlemites of the 20th century, and her own story of migration (from Texas to Harlem via Harvard), Rhodes-Pitts exhibits a sensitivity and subtlety in her writing that recalls the rhythms of Joan Didion.